ORLANDO, Fla. — Putting on makeup, eating, adjusting the stereo, and sending a text are all behaviors contributing to distracted driving.
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Florida officials said they are seeing more deadly crashes related to drivers taking their attention off of the road.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers say young people need to understand the severity of distracted driving as we approach a dangerous time of year for teens behind the wheel.
Traffic agency leaders have spent the past month pleading with drivers to fully focus while behind the wheel.
Watch: What should you do if you encounter a wrong-way driver?
Channel 9 reviewed the data, and preliminary numbers show nearly 300 people died in distracted driving crashes last year, which is up more than 8% from 2022.
“That’s cases where we can prove that distracted driving was a contributing cause,” said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Migdalisis Garcia. “There are crashes that happen that sometimes we can’t prove that or where we don’t have enough evidence, so the numbers are preliminary.”
Garcia says that in Florida, a crash happens every 44 seconds, and 1 in 7 crashes involve distracted drivers.
In 2023, the state investigated nearly 54,800 distracted driving crashes. In those, more than 2,500 people were seriously injured.
Last year, drivers under 30 made up almost 50% of all distracted driving-related crashes.
The message of putting the phone down is vital as we get closer to the “100 deadliest days” for teen drivers.
Read: 9 safety tips for driving in low visibility conditions
Data shows between Memorial Day and Labor Day, fatal teen crashes increase dramatically.
See more in the video above.
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